“I have to talk to a f***king stump four times to confirm that I want to create a shovel! ” – Alex P Alex P, Samantha, Shay, and Alex CG reflect on Animal Crossing New Horizons, Nintendo’s newest iteration of the series that took the quarantined world by storm. What does it mean for a game to be truly accessible, and where is the line between elegance and intricacy. Also, favourite villagers and Harvey is a creep. Links: https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/qj4kdx/sex-work-animal-crossing-new-hori...
Oct 08, 2020•1 hr 16 min
“I don’t love you, Shay” - Alex CG Alex CG (they/them), Samantha (she/her), Alex P (he/him) and Shay (she/her), talk about the pandemic and some of the major news in gaming in the months since Glass House’s hiatus. Most of all they talk about what it’s like being back, how their gaming habits have changed, and unexpected revelations that staying inside a lot makes possible! We've also launched our Patreon so if you enjoy our content, please consider supporting us! Links: The Racial Justice Bundl...
Oct 06, 2020•57 min
"There's too many keyboard warriors. I'm like 'let's do this IRL!'" – Shay Jordan, Shay, and Sam talk about GDC and E3 after both events have been cancelled or postponed this year over coronavirus concerns. Given this and other issues with the accessibility of GDC and the changing relevance of E3, we discuss what video game events offer, and how much of that could be carried over to new formats: in different countries, smaller and more often, or even entirely online. After a whistle-stop tour th...
Mar 16, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 35
“What did the goo do for me?” – Alex CG Jordan, Shay, and Alex CG reflect on Journey to the Savage Planet, a game about exploring a colourful alien planet by shooting things, collecting stuff, and unlocking upgrades. We discuss what motivates us as players and whether Journey to the Savage Planet has it, and whether the game’s zany humour has anything interesting to say. This episode contains spoilers. Links: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20... https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/journey-to... Refle...
Mar 12, 2020•48 min•Ep. 34
“Dude, you turn chicken shit into some... palatable chicken salad.” – Carl. Jordan, Maggie, Alex P, and special guest Carl Anka discuss video game movies. Maggie shares what she thought of Sonic the Hedgehog, Alex P defends 1993’s Super Mario Bros., and Carl… well, Carl has seen a LOT of video game movies and has basically been waiting his entire life for the chance to talk about them. This episode contains spoilers for some old video game movies but we tried very hard NOT to spoil Detective Pik...
Mar 09, 2020•2 hr 5 min•Ep. 33
“Ours was a big independent chain, not a Costa, called the Bean Scene...which before I was there, used to think was a different kind of club” – Sam Sam, Shay, and Jordan reflect on Coffee Talk, a part visual novel, part coffee maker game by Toge Productions. We talk about being a real and fictional barista, what helps us relax and just what the hell is going on with Neil. This episode contains spoilers. Links: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj... http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/how... http...
Mar 05, 2020•48 min•Ep. 32
"So our call to action then for this episode is to Google 'assless chaps.' Or use your search engine of choice!" - Jordan Jordan, Sam, Maggie, and Alex P talk about remakes, remasters, reimaginings? Reboots? Given the imminent release of Final Fantasy VII Remake, we ask: what’s the difference between a remake and remaster anyway? What should modernised versions bring forward from the past and what should they leave behind? Why is 2018’s Shadow of the Colossus the best, and 2017’s Metroid: Samus ...
Mar 02, 2020•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 31
"... Over the course of two hours he watches it burn to ashes... and that's the show!" - Alex P Alex P, Maggie, and Sam, reflect on Kentucky Route Zero, a “magical realist adventure game” a decade in the making from Cardboard Computer. We talk about art influencing games, unique development cycles, and the wild west of American television. This episode contains spoilers. Links: Free games from the dev! http://cardboardcomputer.com/games/ Original Kickstarter for the game https://www.kickstarter....
Feb 27, 2020•2 hr 7 min•Ep. 30
"They're not leather daddies, they're fathers!" - Alex P. Jordan, Sam, and Alex P talk about LGBTQ representation in video games, with a brief history of some early examples, a deep discussion of what more modern games do right and wrong, and a look at some smaller explicitly queer games. Is it better for RPGs with romanceable characters to make them all pansexual so they’re attracted to the player character no matter what, or does that erase the diversity of sexualities? Should trans characters...
Feb 24, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 29
“It is a truly defining game in the Strand genre!” – Shay The whole crew is here to run through all the games that mattered to us from 2019. It was a long day of deliberation and banter and we ended up with a ranked list and our game of the year. Our rankings, as well as individual top 5s from each member of the team, can be found on our website. This episode contains minor spoilers which are verbally flagged. Timestamps for every game mentioned: Eternal Castle - 8:48 Ace Combat - 11:12 Slay the...
Feb 21, 2020•3 hr 47 min•Ep. 28
"She was a huge fascist." - Shay "But a sexy fascist." - Jordan Jordan, Shay, and Maggie talk about romance in video games, from games all about dating, to role-playing games that let you form relationships with elves and aliens, to our video game character crushes and what they say about us… Guess which one of us has a very “white bread” taste in men? This episode contains spoilers for StarCraft. Links: https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/mass-effect-andromeda-romance-guide/ https://www.gamesradar.co...
Feb 17, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 27
"It almost feels like a mockery of people that use these things which feels mean." - Sam Jerica, Sam, and Alex CG reflect on Mosaic, a grey game in which you play through five days in the life of an indistinguishable office worker. Is it effective for a game to convey the mundanity of a 9-to-5 by making the player repeat boring actions? How biting is the satire compared to, say, Black Mirror? And does the ending place the blame on the worker themselves? This episode contains spoilers. Reflection...
Feb 13, 2020•54 min•Ep. 26
"You're going to get cancelled off the back of this!" - Sam Jordan, Shay, Sam, and UKIE’s CEO Jo Twist and Insight and Innovation Manager Luke Hebblethwaite talk about the UK Games Industry Census, a collaboration between the University of Sheffield (led by Dr Mark Taylor), the University of Leeds, and UKIE, with support from the Arts & Humanities Research Council. The 60-page report, using data from 3,200 UK games industry workers, suggests that the games industry is – compared to national ...
Feb 10, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 25
“Because you didn’t need to eat the smell of summer, you needed to smell the smell of summer...” - Alex P Shay, Alex P and Kit reflect on Wattam from the weird and wonderful mind of Katamari Damacy creator, Keita Takahashi. Wattam is a quirky and colourful game that lets you control 100 playable characters each based on everyday items such as telephones, toys and toilets. Join us as we discuss the absurdity of eating golden poops and commandeering sentient facial features. This episode contains ...
Feb 06, 2020•55 min•Ep. 24
"There are deaths throughout the series." "And in real life, I guess." - Alex P Jordan, Alex P, and special guest The English Simmer talk about the game Will Wright used to call “Doll House” and other people at Maxis called “The Toilet Game”. 2020 is the 20th anniversary of The Sims, and Jordan and special guest Mollie (a.k.a. The English Simmer) have been there since the beginning. Alex P may have dropped off at The Sims 3, but he does have a surprising amount of experience with the 1991 game S...
Feb 03, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 23
"Video games, everybody!" – CG Alex CG, Jerica, Alex P, and Sam reflect on Ancestors: the Humankind Odyssey, the new "science-based" survival game from Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time director Patrice Désilets. Set millions of years in the past at the outset of human evolution, the game tries to give a somewhat realistic portrayal of what our predecessors had to go through to get us to the present day. We talk about survival games, whether a new genre of "(mostly) nonviolent...
Jan 30, 2020•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 22
“That's... why I have a daughter now!” – Alex P Jordan, Sam, Maggie and Alex P talk about how to introduce a non-player to video games. In an ideal world you would choose someone’s first video game based on their existing interests, and take the time to help them through it… but in Jordan’s world, we’re creating a general starter pack to hand over to anyone who doesn’t play video games but wants to give them a try. Is thatgamecompany’s Journey actually that approachable for beginners? Why did so...
Jan 27, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 21
"I felt like I was irradiated - you heard it here first!" - Alex CG Alex CG, Alex P, and Sam reflect on Disco Elysium, the groundbreaking RPG / adventure game which swept the 2019 Game Awards and has many saying that a new bar has been set for games writing. We talk about the legacy of CRPGs, politics in games, portrayals of mental health, and the inspirations the game has drawn from literature, art, and history. As it didn't come out in the discussion, we would like to highlight that this game ...
Jan 23, 2020•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 20
“But it did not meet its target...” – Jordan. “... But it did not meat its target!” – Sam. Jordan, Sam, and Alex P talk about vegetarianism and how games can make us reflect on our real-world diets. Should vegetarians think twice about killing virtual creatures? Could a game explicitly designed to criticise the meat industry convince anyone to convert to a vegetarian diet? And… do people eat Pokémon? Links: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-50987943/i-started-the-vega...
Jan 20, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 19
“The best thing is listening to Pikachu’s cry when it’s big...” – Shay Alex P, Sam, Shay, & Jerica reflect on Pokémon Sword and Shield, the eighth mainline entry from Game Freak in a series that’s nearly 25 years old. We talk about British (but really just English) representation, game design, and Alex P’s greatest gaming accomplishment and/or shame. This episode contains spoilers. Links: https://www.polygon.com/2019/11/14/20... https://www.polygon.com/2020/1/14/210... Reflections are scored...
Jan 16, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 18
“You think of Mortal Kombat, you think of boobs, gore, and that’s it. But there’s actually a story there.” – Shay Jordan, Shay, and Sam talk about the Netflix television adaptation of author Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher saga. Sam is our resident expert on all things Witcher, whereas Shay and Jordan have only played a few hours of the epic role-playing game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - does that change how they feel about the television show? After they toss a coin to their Witcher, Shay tells S...
Jan 13, 2020•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 17
"I've never wanted to swing on a 10-year-old more in my life." - Shay Shay, Maggie and Jordan reflect on Life is Strange 2, third in the Life is Strange series from developers Dontnod Entertainment. Life is Strange 2 is a narrative-driven, choice-based episodic game focusing on the lives of two Mexican-American brothers, Sean and Daniel. The game touches on themes of belonging, racism and brotherhood. Join us as we explore whether or not Life is Strange 2 is voyeuristic in the ways it touches on...
Jan 09, 2020•49 min•Ep. 16
“I don’t really like shooting at anyone or anything.” – Maggie. Jordan, Shay, Sam, Maggie, and Alex P talk about ways they might improve their gaming lives in 2020. New Year’s Resolutions are probably just one more way we put too much emphasis on productivity, but also: we’ve all got big backlogs of unplayed games we should probably try to tackle. Or should we be deciding to play fewer games of a certain kind: fewer sequels, fewer default male protagonists, fewer guns? This episode does NOT cont...
Jan 06, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 15
“This was more of a chore-ific game than a horrific one.” – Maggie Maggie, Jordan, and Shay reflect on Luigi’s Mansion 3, the third installment in the nearly two-decades-old franchise. It’s the second such offering by Next Level Games, and we talk about the game’s controls, our favourite levels in the game, and Gooigi of course. Guess who got to fulfil their hoovering fantasy? This episode contains spoilers. Links: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/1... https://twitter.com/chrissyteigen/sta......
Jan 02, 2020•48 min•Ep. 14
“It was like Death Stranding... meets The Witcher... with Shadow of the Colossus aesthetics.” – Sam and Alex CG. Jordan, Shay, Sam, Maggie, Alex P, and Alex CG talk about the past decade in video games, what has changed (and what hasn’t) since 2010, and what games from the past ten years were most important to each of us. This episode contains spoilers for Heavy Rain but we may have actually managed to avoid spoiling anything else. Links: http://awards.bafta.org/award/2011/games https://www.theg...
Dec 30, 2019•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 13
“I can’t make a mental map of all that shit he’s trying to tie together!” – Alex P Maggie, Sam, Alex CG, and Alex P reflect on Death Stranding, the first release from Kojima Productions since its reformation as an independent studio. We talk about whether the game truly offered an “all-new, genre-defying experience for the PlayStation 4 system”, celebrity appearances, advertising in games, and whether it’s possible to tell a complex story without exposition. This episode contains spoilers. Links...
Dec 26, 2019•2 hr 16 min•Ep. 12
“The enemy is capitalism, it’s not just Call of Duty.” – Sam. Jordan, Shay, Sam, Alex CG, and Marijam Didžgalvytė talk about why AAA developers and publishers continue to insist that their games contain no political statements despite all the evidence to the contrary. We also ask whether proudly political games do enough to merit all the plaudits, and take a moment to fast-forward the conversation even further: to the uncomfortable geopolitics behind the global video games industry and its means...
Dec 23, 2019•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 11
“You watch him get beat up by these two security guards and he’s like “can I come with you?”, that doesn’t make any sense!” – Shay Sam, Shay, and Alex P reflect on The Outer Worlds, the latest RPG from Obsidian. We talk about its Fallout influence, satire of capitalism and why the main menu might be the best thing about it. This episode contains spoilers. Links: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/obsidian-says-it-doesnt-want-outer-worlds-to-be-a-politically-charged-game/ Reflections are sc...
Dec 19, 2019•56 min•Ep. 10
“I think it might be the worst game I’ve played this year” – Alex P. Jordan, Maggie, and Alex P talk about the winners of The Game Awards, wonder why Disco Elysium wasn’t up for Game of the Year when it won so many other awards, and try to remember the name of the Xbox Series X. Links: https://thegameawards.com/ https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the... https://www.theguardian.com/games/201... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tUqI... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJWI4... https://www.youtube.co...
Dec 16, 2019•1 hr 47 min•Ep. 9
“I was surprised that the nerdy kid was called Brad.” – Jordan. Jordan, Shay, Sam, and Maggie reflect on The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan, the choice-based survival horror game from Supermassive Games. Shay can’t help but compare it to Until Dawn, Sam has thoughts on the cinematic approach, and Jordan and Maggie prove that it’s probably much better when you play it with friends. This episode contains spoilers. Reflections are scored individually on a scale from love to hate, and then a ...
Dec 12, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 8
